From Gradgrind to Brodie: Two Philosophies, One World!

Despite the big considerable differences between Charles Dickens’ classic and most pedagogical novel Hard Times (1854) and Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), they have much in common as both feature an unorthodox theory of teaching, which turns out to be thoroughly detrimental to their students’ independent, creative thinking. In their most extreme form, the teaching philosophies of their protagonists, Mr Thomas Gradgrind in Hard Times and the eponymous character of Miss Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, though much different, lead up to one single result: they do obliterate students’ free thinking and critical capacities. It is simply a system that does reduce students to “little vessels…arranged in order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts [or whatever] poured into them until they were full to the brim” (Dickens, 1994, p.2). This article is an explicitly comparative reading of Dickens’ and Spark’s responses to educational philosophies. Whereas Miss Brodie is a nonconformist who goes against the conventional educational methods, Mr Gradgrind relentlessly espouses the traditional education system verbatim by exalting reason and underestimating imagination.

"RITE OF PASSAGE IN DIASPORA: JAMAICA KINCAID'S LUCY AS A POSTCOLONIAL KÜNSTLERROMAN"

Jamaica Kincaid's novel Lucy (1990) is a coming-of-age story, or a Künstlerroman to be more specific in the tradition of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1917), that simply revolves around a young woman artist, who learns much from the school of life and personal experiences other than from ordinary education at academic institutions. The eponymous protagonist breaks away from such forces as colonial and patriarchal mores, which eventually contributes to her construction of her own hybrid identity and inaugurates her maturity. This struggle is established perfectly well through her apparent resistance to the constraints primarily imposed on her race and gender by both the Eurocentric society, which she has just left behind at home, and the androcentric society she encounters in diaspora. Surprisingly enough, Lucy, who is chastened towards the end of the book, creates her rite of passage towards development and independence through her valiant efforts to overcome such confines at any cost. The aim of the present article is to analyse the young artist's character formation and growth both at home and in diaspora from a postcolonial perspective. This way, it intertwines discussions of transition from innocence to experience along with such elements as androcentrism, colonial and postcolonial rebellion, and questions of identity, hybridity, diaspora and cultural displacement, which are all inextricably linked with the postcolonial discourse

The effects of ionizing radiation on the face fly, Musca autumnalis DeGeer, irradiated in nitrogen

Six day old face fly pupae, one day before emergence, were irradiated in a nitrogenous atmosphere using gamma radiation from a cobalt 60 source. Six levels of gamma radiation were used: 0, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 rads. The effects of gamma radiation on eclosion, reproduction, and male longevity and competitiveness were determined. Female mating habits under laboratory conditions were also examined;Irradiation under anoxic conditions did not adversely affect adult eclosion, female fecundity or male competitiveness. Sterility in treated males and females increased as radiation dosage increased. A dose of 2500 rads reduced fertility of males to less than 1% and produced similar results in the females. Longevity of treated males was not affected by increasing radiation dose up to 2000 rads. However, males receiving 2500 rads died sooner than unirradiated males. Studies on the mating habit of the female face fly showed that most of the females mated only once; however, few of them mated a second time;The results of this study indicate that face fly males treated as six-day old pupae with 2500 rads in a nitrogenous atmosphere would apparently be satisfactory for use in a sterile male release program

Low-cost Arduino-Based Ultrasonic Radar System

Faculty Research Day 2018: Undergraduate Student Poster People's ChoiceRADAR uses radio waves to detect the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. Radars have been used for airport air-traffic control, highway patrol, ballistic missile guidance, military exercise and many other applications. In this poster, we developed a low-cost tiny ultrasonic radar system based on Arduino. It utilizes ultrasonic sensors to detect the object in the range and passes the information to Arduino microcontroller. Once the object is detected, two sets of alarm can be triggered. The graphical display utilizes the position of the detected objects on the computer to send visual alarm on LED screen. Sound alarm can also be sent via an audio buzzer. By adjusting the rotation of the servo motor, we allow the sensing to be in range from 0 degree to 150 degrees. It can detect objects up to 400 cm away from the ultrasonic sensor. The prototype of the system is implemented and coding for Arduino control is developed. Experimental results show that the system can detect objects within the range and alarm can be successfully triggered

Prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among low risk pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic in tertiary hospital: a cross sectional study

Background: The current study aims to identify the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among low-risk pregnant women attending the antenatal care clinic of tertiary University Hospital and to detect the most common causative organisms.Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary University Hospital in the period between 1st November 2017 and 31st June 2018. All eligible women attending the outpatient clinic for antenatal care were approached to participate in the study. The recruited women were assessed through detailed history and clinical examination. Urine samples were taken for culture and sensitivity within two hours, in order to avoid bacterial multiplication. Urine culture and antibiotic sensitivity test were done.Results: The study included 250 women. The mean age of included women was 25.89±5.49 (18-42 years). The urine analysis results showed that 32% of cases had pus cells >5 per high power field and 10.4% of cases have protein (+). Casts were present in 0.8% of cases. RBCs >5 per high power field were present in 4.8% of cases. ASB is defined as urine culture with more than 100,000 colony forming unit; this was present in 30 cases. This indicates that the prevalence of ASB among studied cases was 12%. Enterococcus was the most prevalent organism as it was present in 36.7% among positive cases. Antibiotic sensitivity test was performed to the growing organisms indicated that teicoplanin, imipenem, cefoxitin, cefotaxime + clavulanic acid, Entrapenem, and trimethoprim + sulfamethoxazole are the most effective antibiotics against the most common organisms causing asymptomatic bacteriuria.Conclusions: The prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among low-risk pregnant women is about 12%. Urine culture for asymptomatic bacteriuria should be the standard of care for evaluation of pregnant patient during antenatal care as regard presence or absence of UTI